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Explore top-rated FireMon alternatives for firewall security management. Find the best solutions for your needs based on our ranked and rated comparison. Top 10 FireMon competitors & alternatives (ranked & rated) ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk mitigation with the AlgoSec platform White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure continuous compliance Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk Case study Choose a better way to manage your network

Silos hurt security NetworkSecurity is the responsibility of both NetOps SecOps In this panel with Cisco, Conscia AlgoSec security experts, we’ll share how to bring the teams together Webinars Bridging NetOps and SecOps: An Experts’ Panel Silos hurt security. Your network and its security are not managed by just one team. It is the responsibility of both NetOps and SecOps, but these teams don’t always play well together. In this security experts’ panel, Doug Hurd from Cisco, Henrik Skovfoged from Conscia, Oren Amiram and Tsippi Dach from AlgoSec will share how you can bring NetOps and SecOps teams together with Cisco ACI, Cisco Secure Workload (formerly Cisco Tetration) and AlgoSec. Discover how NetOps and SecOps teams can: Bridge the NetOps/SecOps divide, improve communication, and break down the silos between network and security. Align network, security, and business application owners Improve the entire network security with Cisco Secure Workload and firewall management Automate tasks and gain network traffic visibility of networks and security controls for threat detection, analysis and response across Cisco ACI and the entire hybrid and multi-vendor network. March 16, 2021 Alex Hilton Chief Executive at Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) Tsippi Dach Director of marketing communications Relevant resources Cisco & AlgoSec achieving application-driven security across your hybrid network Keep Reading DevSecOps: Putting the Sec into the DevOps Keep Reading Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

AlgoSec’s latest product release delivers automated application connectivity and security policy changes, deepens application visibility and discovery, and extends application risk analysis across multi-clouds and hybrid environments. Securely Accelerate Application Delivery and Policy Management with AlgoSec ASMS A32.10 AlgoSec’s latest product release delivers automated application connectivity and security policy changes, deepens application visibility and discovery, and extends application risk analysis across multi-clouds and hybrid environments. September 8, 2021 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., September 8, 2021 – AlgoSec , the application connectivity and security policy company, has introduced enhanced automated application connectivity and security policy changes, and deepened application visibility and discovery, in the latest version of its Network Security Management Solution. AlgoSec Security Management Suite (ASMS) A32.10 builds on previous versions to give IT and security experts the most comprehensive visibility and control over security across their entire hybrid environment. With A32.10, organizations can align network security with their overall business objectives, automating the process in a single platform for a seamless, zero-touch experience. The key benefits that AlgoSec ASMS A32.10 delivers to IT, network and security experts include: Intelligent application connectivity in SDNs and the cloud AlgoSec ASMS A32.10 introduces intelligent application connectivity management and enhanced security policy automation to leading SDN and cloud platforms, including VMware’s NSX-T. It also extends support for MSO-managed Cisco ACI devices, Cisco’s leading SDN platform. Application discovery and visibility across hybrid networks With A32.10 enterprises can use traffic logs to automatically discover applications on the network, providing enriched mapping across hybrid network estates. It provides a seamless and complete picture of the network across multiple public clouds including Google Cloud (GCP) and AWS Transit Gateway as well as Check Point R80 Inline and Ordering Layers. Extended application risk analysis A32.10 extends cloud risk management with new risk triggers of interest and unique filtering capabilities. When using A32.10, VMware NSX-T users can receive risk notifications, so they are aware of the potential compliance violations introduced by applications. “In this fast pace era of digital transformation, speed is of the essence. Unfortunately, many organizations confuse this for agility and take too many risks with their security, leaving them vulnerable to attack.” said Eran Shiff, Vice President, Product, of AlgoSec. “A32.10 makes it easier for organizations to securely accelerate application connectivity, enabling them to move fast across multi-cloud and hybrid environments and stay ahead of security threats, increasing business agility and compliance.” AlgoSec ASMS A32.10 is generally available. About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. AlgoSec’s patented application-centric view of the hybrid network enables business owners, application owners, and information security professionals to talk the same language, so organizations can deliver business applications faster while achieving a heightened security posture. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks, while taking advantage of almost two decades of leadership in Network Security Policy Management. See what securely accelerating your digital transformation, move-to-cloud, infrastructure modernization, or micro-segmentation initiatives looks like at www.algosec.com Media Contacts: Tsippi Dach AlgoSec [email protected] Jenni Livesley Context Public Relations [email protected] +44(0)300 124 6100

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Energy supplier keeps the lights on with automated network change management Organization Energy Supplier Industry Utilities & Energy Headquarters International Download case study Share Customer
success stories "AlgoSec has saved us a lot of time in managing our rule base.” Large energy supplier empowers internal stakeholders and streamlines network security policy change process Background The company is the provider of electricity and gas for their country. They are responsible for the planning, construction, operation, maintenance and global technical management of both these grids and associated infrastructures. The Challenge In order to provide power to millions of people, the company runs more than twenty IT and OT firewalls from multiple vendors that are hosted in multiple data centers throughout the country. Some of the challenges included: Lack of visibility over a complex architecture – With multiple networks, IT managers needed to know which network is behind which firewall and connect traffic flows to firewall rules. Change management processes were being managed by network diagrams created in Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets – tools that were not designed for network security policy management. Thousands of rules – Each firewall may have thousands of rules each. Many of these rules are unneeded and introduce unnecessary risk. Managing the maze of rules was time consuming and took time away from other strategic initiatives. Unnecessary requests – Business stakeholders were requesting status information about network traffic and making duplicate and unnecessary change requests for items covered by existing rules. The Solution The company was searching for a solution that provided: Visibility into their network topology, including traffic flows. Optimization of their firewall rules. Alerts before time-based rules expire. Automatic implementation of their rule base onto their firewall devices. They implemented AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer and AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow, as well as AlgoBot, AlgoSec’s ChatOps solution. AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer ensures security and compliance by providing visibility and analysis into complex network security policies. AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow improves security and saves security staffs’ time by automating the entire security policy change process, eliminating manual errors, and reducing risk. AlgoBot is an intelligent chatbot that handles network security policy management tasks. AlgoBot answers business user’s questions, submitted in plain English, and automatically assists with security policy change management processes – without requiring manual inputs or additional research. The Results Some of the ways the company benefitted from using AlgoSec include: Visibility and topology mapping – They are able to get a picture of their entire network and view traffic flows to each network device. Optimized firewall rules – They are able to adjust the placement of their rules, placing their most used rules higher in the rule base, improving performance, and also checking for unused objects or rules to clean up, removing unused rules, improving firewall performance. Improved communication and transparency for time-based rules – Before time-based rules expire (rule with an expiration date), the requester is automatically notified and asked if the rule should be extended or removed. Better, more refined rule requests – By first gathering information from AlgoBot, rule requests are better focused. Internal customers are able to check if rules are already in place before making requests, therefore avoiding requests that are already covered by existing rules. Empower internal stakeholders – Able to save the IT team’s time by empowering internal stakeholders to use AlgoBot to get the answers themselves to traffic queries. Met change implementation SLAs – By implementing their rules with AlgoSec, the company meets their internal SLAs for change implementation. Streamlined auditing processes – By documenting the changes they made in the firewalls, who made them, and when, their audit processes are streamlined. Zero-touch automation – Automatically implementing rules in multiple firewalls simultaneously ensures policy consistency across multiple devices, while preserving staff resources. This also eliminates the need to use the management consoles from individual vendors, saving time and reducing misconfigurations. Staff efficiencies – Hundreds of monthly change requests are able to be managed by a single staff member. He would not be able to do it without AlgoSec. The company switched from a competing solution because it was more user-friendly and provided greater visibility than the competing solution they were previously using. They are also impressed with AlgoSec’s scalability. “The initial setup is really easy. It has been running flawlessly since installation. Even upgrades are pretty straightforward and have never given us problems,” they noted. Schedule time with one of our experts

AlgoSec’s latest product release provides application-based identification and risk analysis in multi-cloud environments and on-premises. Gain more insights into multi cloud application connectivity with AlgoSec A32.50 AlgoSec’s latest product release provides application-based identification and risk analysis in multi-cloud environments and on-premises. January 10, 2023 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., January 10, 2023 – AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader in securing application connectivity, announced today the release of its latest product version A32.50. AlgoSec A32.50 provides a powerful solution for organizations to secure application connectivity in their hybrid and multi-cloud estate. With A32.50, organizations obtain granular visibility and discovery of applications, enabling identification and risk analysis in multi-cloud environments and on-premises. The key benefits that AlgoSec A32.50 delivers to IT, network, and security experts include: Application awareness for Cisco Firepower and Palo Alto’s Panorama as part of the change management cycle Enables SecOps teams to update firewall application information as part of the firewall rules in the workflow automation Extended SASE/SSE management Provides Zscaler users management capabilities focused on risk, regulatory compliance, and policy optimization. As an early availability, A32.50 supports Prisma Access visibility of mobile users. Ensure ongoing regulatory compliance with new and updated out of the box reports Generate full audit report for the ECB security of internet payments and maintain ongoing compliance with the regulatory requirements. Additionally, utilize updated PCI and SWIFT requirement reports. Integrate cloud security into your IaC initiative while streamlining processes Embed cloud security checks into the DevSecOps native tools, allowing them to proactively identify and mitigate risk as part of their ongoing process. About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to secure application connectivity by automating connectivity flows and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. AlgoSec’s patented application-centric view of the hybrid network enables business owners, application owners, and information security professionals to talk the same language, so organizations can deliver business applications faster while achieving a heightened security posture. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks while taking advantage of almost two decades of leadership in Network Security Policy Management. See what securely accelerating your digital transformation, move-to-cloud, infrastructure modernization, or micro-segmentation initiatives looks like at www.algosec.com

AlgoSec’s latest product release provides organizations with enhanced application connectivity visibility, effective security, and continuous compliance with the most recent regulations across their multi-cloud environments. Ensure up to date compliance and tighten your hybrid network security posture with AlgoSec A32.60 AlgoSec’s latest product release provides organizations with enhanced application connectivity visibility, effective security, and continuous compliance with the most recent regulations across their multi-cloud environments. September 13, 2023 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., September 13, 2023 – AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, introduces AlgoSec A32.60, the latest in application connectivity security and compliance. AlgoSec A32.60 provides an effective solution for organizations to secure application connectivity in their hybrid and multi-cloud estate. A32.60 integrates cloud security visibility into AlgoSec’s security management platform and enables organizations to ensure ongoing compliance with industry regulatory standards. The key benefits that AlgoSec A32.60 delivers to network and security experts include: Enhanced visibility and security of north-south network traffic: New integration with Palo Alto Prisma Access, now encompassing mobile user policies within the Prisma access fabric. New integration and support for SD-WAN Versa Networks, offering extended visibility into network connectivity and an intuitive topology map. Ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance: Enhanced ISO 27001 report with the latest 2022 standards, allowing organizations to ensure alignment with the most current regulations. Integration of a new ECB (European Central Bank) regulations report, allowing companies to confidently navigate evolving compliance requirements. Integrating cloud security visibility into network security policy management: Expanded integration with Microsoft Azure firewall enables centralized visibility across both cloud and traditional firewalls, all within a single, unified management solution. New automation support for Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) objects in Palo Alto Panorama, Fortinet FortiManager, and Check Point. This allows users to efficiently manage and secure their network resources while embracing the flexibility of cloud environments. About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to secure application connectivity by automating connectivity flows and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, achieve compliance at the application-level and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. AlgoSec’s patented application-centric view of the hybrid network enables business owners, application owners, and information security professionals to talk the same language, so organizations can deliver business applications faster while achieving a heightened security posture. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks. See what securely accelerating your digital transformation, move-to-cloud, infrastructure modernization, or micro-segmentation initiatives looks like at www.algosec.com

Learn practical cloud security tips for identity, network access, application connectivity, monitoring, compliance evidence, and governed policy changes How to enhance cloud security: 10 practical tips for enterprise teams Why cloud security needs operational context, not just controls? A cloud change request lands with a familiar question: the security group is broad, the exception label says "temporary migration," and no one is sure whether the old reporting feed still uses it. The cloud team can see the rule. The application owner remembers part of the project. Compliance wants evidence. Network security is cautious because one cleanup change could touch a service that has not been mapped in months. Effective cloud security starts with clear ownership and least-privilege access, then extends to asset inventory, hardened cloud network access, application-aware change review, data protection, monitoring, incident response, and evidence captured as work happens. Cloud security is the set of controls and operating practices that protect cloud identities, workloads, networks, data, and changes. Cloud security posture is how well those controls hold up across real accounts, subscriptions, projects, applications, and day-to-day decisions. Schedule a Demo Why cloud security gets harder as environments grow In an enterprise environment, cloud security data rarely sits in one place. Identity permissions may live with the cloud platform team. Security groups, network security groups, VPC firewall rules, and firewall policies may be reviewed by network security. Logs may flow into SecOps tools. Application ownership may sit in a CMDB, a ticket queue, or someone's memory from the last migration. That separation creates gaps. A security decision often happens without a shared application context, so reviewers are left trying to answer practical questions such as: · Who owns the service · Which dependency uses the connection · Whether traffic is still observed on the path · What could break if the access changes As hybrid and multi-cloud environments grow, small exceptions can turn into policy drift. Temporary access becomes permanent. Unused resources stay reachable because no one wants to remove them blindly. Schedule a Demo Navigating the shared responsibility model Shared responsibility also matters. Cloud providers secure the underlying services they operate, while customers remain responsible for many decisions about identities, data, workload configuration, logging, and access policies. The exact split changes across infrastructure, platform, and software-as-a-service models, so ownership rules need to match the cloud services your teams actually run. Schedule a Demo 10 practical tips for enhancing cloud security The best cloud security programs do not treat these tips as a once-a-year checklist. They build them into change review, deployment, monitoring, and audit preparation so small exceptions do not quietly become long-term exposure. 1. Define shared responsibility and ownership. Name the owners for cloud accounts, subscriptions, projects, applications, data sets, access policies, and approvals. When ownership is vague, exceptions stay open because no one has the authority or context to close them. 2. Tighten identity and privileged access. Enforce multifactor authentication, least privilege, temporary elevation, and regular access reviews. Pay special attention to service accounts, unused roles, standing administrator access, and permissions granted outside the normal request process. 3. Inventory assets and exposed services. You cannot protect what you cannot see. Maintain an inventory of workloads, storage buckets, databases, Kubernetes clusters, public endpoints, and orphaned resources, with tags that show the owner, environment, business purpose, and sensitivity where possible. 4. Harden cloud network access rules. Review security groups, network security groups, VPC firewall rules, and cloud firewall policies for broad inbound access, unrestricted outbound access, unused rules, and poorly documented exceptions. Treat this work as part of continuous network security management , not as a one-off cloud setting. 5. Map application connectivity before changing access. A cloud rule can look unnecessary until it supports a payroll job, failover path, reporting feed, or maintenance window. Before narrowing access, check application connectivity , the application owner, dependencies, observed traffic, and the rollback plan. 6. Protect data with classification and encryption. Classify data by sensitivity and apply controls that match real business risk. Use encryption in transit and at rest, manage keys carefully, and define retention rules so sensitive data is not kept longer than needed. 7. Monitor logs, traffic, and control-plane activity. Collect the signals teams need to investigate changes and incidents: audit logs, flow logs, identity events, API activity, alert context, and remediation notes. Monitoring is more useful when alerts identify the affected workload, owner, and likely business impact. 8. Review infrastructure-as-code and pipeline changes. Cloud security changes often begin in templates, pull requests, and deployment pipelines. Review infrastructure-as-code for overly permissive access, exposed services, weak defaults, and unapproved policy changes before they reach production. 9. Prepare response and recovery playbooks. Plan how teams will isolate a compromised account, revoke credentials, roll back a risky change, restore backups, and preserve evidence. Tabletop exercises help expose gaps before an incident forces teams to improvise. 10. Keep compliance-ready evidence as work happens. Do not wait for an audit to reconstruct the story. Keep change tickets, approvals, risk reviews, exception owners, recertification records, and remediation notes tied to the policy decisions they support. Schedule a Demo Cloud security tips at a glance Use this table as a quick operating model for cloud security work. The goal is not only to improve controls, but to preserve the evidence that explains why each decision was made. Cloud security area Operational move Evidence to keep Identity and access Enforce MFA, least privilege, role reviews, and temporary privileged access Access review records, exception owners, approvals Cloud network policies Review security groups, network security groups, VPC firewall rules, and broad inbound or outbound access Rule owner, traffic history, business justification, change ticket Application connectivity Map which applications use each connection before removing or narrowing access Application owner, dependency map, observed flows, rollback plan Monitoring and response Collect audit logs, flow logs, alert context, and response actions across cloud accounts Alert notes, incident timeline, remediation record Compliance and governance Record approvals, exceptions, recertification, and policy changes during normal work Compliance-ready evidence, risk acceptance, control owner signoff Schedule a Demo Common mistakes that weaken cloud security programs Treating cloud security as a tooling problem only: CSPM, CNAPP, SIEM, vulnerability management, and provider-native controls can surface important issues, but tools cannot replace clear ownership, application context, and governed change decisions Assuming the cloud provider handles customer-side configuration: providers operate the cloud infrastructure, but customers still manage permissions, workloads, data settings, logging choices, and access rules for the services they use Cleaning up rules without dependency checks: blind firewall policy cleanup can turn into an outage if a quiet rule supports a seasonal process, maintenance job, or failover route. Move from discovery to validation to approved change, with a rollback plan ready Leaving the evidence trail until the audit: a team can make the right decision and still struggle during an audit if no one captured the owner, justification, risk review, approval record, and remediation note. Strong programs make audit readiness part of daily work, not a separate scramble Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric cloud security management This is where a platform view matters. In hybrid environments, cloud access policies rarely stand alone. They interact with firewall rules, network paths, application dependencies, security policy change management , exceptions, and compliance requirements. AlgoSec Horizon helps enterprise teams connect application context, security policy visibility, risk analysis, governed change processes, and compliance-ready evidence across hybrid environments. For cloud security teams, that context helps turn a rule review from "is this port open?" into better questions: which application may rely on it, who owns the decision, what risk does it introduce, and what evidence should be preserved before access changes? AlgoSec Horizon is not a substitute for human judgment. It helps security, network, cloud, application, and compliance teams work from a shared application-centric view when they review access, approve changes, and prepare for audits. Schedule a Demo Frequently asked questions What is the most important cloud security tip? Start with ownership and identity. If no one owns the cloud account, application, data, or access path, it is harder to apply least privilege, review exceptions, or show why a control exists during an audit. How often should cloud security groups be reviewed? Review frequency should match risk, change volume, and audit requirements. Internet-facing access, privileged paths, production workloads, and regulated environments usually need more frequent review than low-risk internal resources. How do teams reduce cloud misconfigurations? Use secure baselines, review infrastructure-as-code templates, apply provider-native guardrails where they fit, and route higher-risk changes through governed approvals. Keep remediation evidence with the ticket so the team can show what changed and why. Why does application connectivity matter in cloud security? Cloud access rules are safer to change when teams know which application uses the connection. Application context helps separate stale access from business-critical dependencies, failover paths, and maintenance processes. How does AlgoSec Horizon help with cloud security? AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric visibility, policy context, risk analysis, governed changes, and compliance-ready evidence across hybrid environments. This helps connect cloud policy decisions to applications, owners, approvals, and audit histories. Schedule a Demo Select a size Why cloud security needs operational context, not just controls? Why cloud security gets harder as environments grow Navigating the shared responsibility model 10 practical tips for enhancing cloud security Cloud security tips at a glance Common mistakes that weaken cloud security programs How AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric cloud security management Frequently asked questions Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy across the hybrid network estate. Solución de gestión de seguridad Algosec Bienvenue! Gestionar sus políticas de seguridad de redes en todos los cortafuegos de las instalaciones y en controles de seguridad de la nube es un acto que debe llevarse a cabo de manera equilibrada. Por un lado, debe reducir los riesgos y minimizar la superficie de ataque, y por el otro, debe permitir la productividad al brindar conectividad para sus aplicaciones empresariales más importantes. Sin embargo, los procesos de gestión de políticas de seguridad siempre han sido complejos, prolongados y plagados de errores. No debería ser así. Tanto en las instalaciones como en la nube, AlgoSec simplifica y automatiza la gestión de políticas de seguridad en las redes para que su empresa se vuelva más ágil, más segura y más eficiente, ¡todo el tiempo! Un enfoque de la inigualable vida útil para la gestión de políticas de seguridad AlgoSec es inigualable por el hecho de que gestiona toda la vida útil de las políticas de seguridad para garantizar conectividad constante y segura para sus aplicaciones empresariales. Con muchísima claridad podrá descubrir automáticamente los requerimientos de conectividad de la aplicación, analizar los riesgos proactivamente, planificar y ejecutar cambios de seguridad en la red rápidamente, y desactivar reglas del cortafuegos de manera segura, todo en cero toques y dinámicamente orquestado en su entorno heterogéneo. Con AlgoSec usted puede Unificar la gestión de políticas de seguridad de redes en nubes heterogéneas, y en entornos definidos por software o en instalaciones Garantice el cumplimiento continuo y reduzca drásticamente los esfuerzos de preparación para auditorías del cortafuegos Proporcione conectividad a las aplicaciones de manera rápida y segura y evite interrupciones en las redes linee la seguridad, las redes y los equipos de aplicación e impulse las operaciones de seguridad de los programadores Automatice la gestión de cambios en el cortafuegos y elimine las configuraciones incorrectas Reduzca el riesgo a través de la configuración de seguridad correcta y la segmentación de red efectiva La Solución de gestión de seguridad AlgoSec Análisis de red de políticas de seguridad Más información Firewall Analyzer Automatización de cambios en las políticas de seguridad Más información FireFlow Calculadora de Retorno de inversión (ROI) Folleto de la solución AlgoSec Representante local Gil Kremer Phone: +55-11-991068906
Email: [email protected] Relevant links TELEFÓNICA MÉXICO Estudio de caso NATURA Estudio de caso Schedule time with one of our experts

In the previous parts of our blog ( part I and part II ), we have described the most important parts of the Sunburst backdoor... Cloud Security Sunburst Backdoor, Part III: DGA & Security Software Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/22/20 Published In the previous parts of our blog ( part I and part II ), we have described the most important parts of the Sunburst backdoor functionality and its Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA). This time, let’s have a deeper look into the passive DNS requests reported by Open-Source Context and Zetalytics . The valid DNS requests generated by the malware fall into 2 groups: DNS requests that encode a local domain name DNS requests that encode data The first type of DNS requests allows splitting long domain names into separate requests. These requests are generated by the malware’s functions GetPreviousString() and GetCurrentString() . In general, the format of a DNS request that encodes a domain name may look like: USER_ID.NUM.COMPUTER_DOMAIN[.]appsync-api.us-west-2[.]avsvmcloud[.]com where: USER_ID is an 8-byte user ID that uniquely identifies a compromised host, encoded as a 15-character string NUM is a number of a domain name – either 0 or 1, encoded as a character COMPUTER_DOMAIN is an encoded local computer domain Let’s try decoding the following 3 DNS requests: olc62cocacn7u2q22v02eu.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com r1qshoj05ji05ac6eoip02jovt6i2v0c.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com lt5ai41qh5d53qoti3mkmc0.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com String 1 Let’s start from the 1st string in the list: olc62cocacn7u2q22v02eu.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com. In this string, the first 15-character string is an encoded USER_ID : “olc62cocacn7u2q” . Once it is base-64 decoded, as explained in the previous post, it becomes a 9-byte byte array: 86 7f 2f be f9 fb a3 ae c4 The first byte in this byte array is a XOR key: 0x86 . Once applied to the 8 bytes that follow it, we get the 8-byte user ID – let’s take a note and write it down, we will need it later: f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 Next, let’s take the NUM part of the encoded domain: it’s a character “2” located at the position #15 (starting from 0) of the encrypted domain. In order to decode the NUM number, we have to take the first character of the encrypted domain, take the reminder of its division by 36 , and subtract the NUM ‘s position in the string “0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” : num = domain[0] % 36 – “0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz”.IndexOf(domain.Substring(15, 1)); The result is 1 . That means the decrypted domain will be the 2nd part of a full domain name. The first part must have its NUM decoded as 0. The COMPUTER_DOMAIN part of the encrypted domain is “2v02eu” . Once decoded, using the previously explained method, the decoded computer domain name becomes “on.ca” . String 2 Let’s decode the second passive DNS request from our list: r1qshoj05ji05ac6eoip02jovt6i2v0c.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com Just as before, the decoded 8-byte user ID becomes: f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 The NUM part of the encoded domain, located at the position #15 (starting from 0), is a character “6” . Let’s decode it, by taking the first character ( “r” = 114 ), take the reminder of its division by 36 ( 114 % 36 = 6 ), and subtracting the position of the character “6” in the “0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” , which is 6 . The result is 0 . That means the decrypted domain will be the 1st part of the full domain name. The COMPUTER_DOMAIN part of the encrypted domain is “eoip02jovt6i2v0c” . Once decoded, it becomes “city.kingston.” Next, we need to match 2 decrypted domains by the user ID, which is f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 in both cases, and concatenate the first and the second parts of the domain. The result will be “city.kingston.on.ca” . String 3 Here comes the most interesting part. Lets try to decrypt the string #3 from our list of passive DNS requests: lt5ai41qh5d53qoti3mkmc0.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com The decoded user ID is not relevant, as the decoded NUM part is a number -29 . It’s neither 0 nor 1 , so what kind of domain name that is? If we ignore the NUM part and decode the domain name, using the old method, we will get “thx8xb” , which does not look like a valid domain name. Cases like that are not the noise, and are not some artificially encrypted artifacts that showed up among the DNS requests. This is a different type of DNS requests. Instead of encoding local domain names, these types of requests contain data. They are generated by the malware’s function GetNextStringEx() . The encryption method is different as well. Let’s decrypt this request. First, we can decode the encrypted domain, using the same base-64 method, as before . The string will be decoded into 14 bytes: 7c a5 4d 64 9b 21 c1 74 a6 59 e4 5c 7c 7f Let’s decode these bytes, starting from the 2nd byte, and using the first byte as a XOR key. We will get: 7c d9 31 18 e7 5d bd 08 da 25 98 20 00 03 In this array, the bytes marked in yellow are an 8-byte User ID, encoded with a XOR key that is selected from 2 bytes marked in red. Let’s decode User ID: for ( int i = 0 ; i < 8 ; i++) { bytes[i + 1 ] ^= bytes[ 11 - i % 2 ]; } The decoded byte array becomes: 7c f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 25 98 20 00 03 The User ID part in marked in yellow. Does it look familiar? Indeed, it’s the same User ID we’ve seen before, when we decoded “city.kingston.on.ca” . The next 3 bytes marked in red are: 25 98 20 . 2 0x59820 The first number 2 stands for the size of data that follows – this data is 00 03 (selected in green). The number 0x59820 , or 366,624 in decimal, is a timestamp. It’s a number of 4-second periods of time since 1 January 2010. To obtain the real time stamp, we need to multiple it by 15 to get minutes, then add those minutes to 1 January 2010: var date = ( new DateTime( 2010 , 1 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 0 , DateTimeKind.Utc)).AddMinutes(timestamp * 15 ); For the number 0x59820 , the time stamp becomes 16 July 2020 12:00:00 AM – that’s the day when the DNS request was made. The remaining 2 bytes, 00 03 , encrypt the state of 8 security products, to indicate whether each one of them is running or whether it is stopped. The 8 security products are: Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Microsoft Defender for Identity Carbon Black CrowdStrike FireEye ESET F-Secure 2 states for 8 products require 2 * 8 = 16 bits = 2 bytes. The 2 bytes 00 03 in binary form are: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 11 Here, the least-significant bits 11 identify that the first product in the list, Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender, is reported as ‘running’ ( 1 ) and as ‘stopped’ ( 1 ). Now we know that apart from the local domain, the trojanised SolarWinds software running on the same compromised host on “city.kingston.on.ca” domain has also reported the status of the Windows Defender software. What Does it Mean? As explained in the first part of our description, the malware is capable of stopping the services of security products, be manipulating registry service keys under Administrator account. It’s likely that the attackers are using DNS queries as a C2 channel to first understand what security products are present. Next, the same channel is used to instruct the malware to stop/deactivate these services, before the 2nd stage payload, TearDrop Backdoor, is deployed. Armed with this knowledge, let’s decode other passive DNS requests, printing the cases when the compromised host reports a running security software. NOTES: As a private case, if the data size field is 0 or 1 , the timestamp field is not followed with any data. Such type of DNS request is generated by the malware’s function GetNextString() . It is called ‘a ping’ in the listing below. If the first part of the domain name is missing, the recovered domain name is pre-pended with ‘*’ . The malware takes the time difference in minutes, then divides it by 30 and then converts the result from double type to int type; as a result of such conversion, the time stamps are truncated to the earliest half hour. 2D82B037C060515C SFBALLET Data: Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender [running] 11/07/2020 12:00:00 AM Pings: 12/07/2020 12:30:00 AM 70DEE5C062CFEE53 ccscurriculum.c Data: ESET [running] 17/04/2020 4:00:00 PM Pings: 20/04/2020 5:00:00 PM AB902A323B541775 mountsinai.hospital Pings: 4/07/2020 12:30:00 AM 9ACC3A3067DC7FD5 *ripta.com Data: ESET [running] 12/09/2020 6:30:00 AM Pings: 13/09/2020 7:30:00 AM 14/09/2020 9:00:00 AM CB34C4EBCB12AF88 DPCITY.I7a Data: ESET [running] 26/06/2020 5:00:00 PM Pings: 27/06/2020 6:30:00 PM 28/06/2020 7:30:00 PM 29/06/2020 8:30:00 PM 29/06/2020 8:30:00 PM E5FAFE265E86088E *scroot.com Data: CrowdStrike [running] 25/07/2020 2:00:00 PM Pings: 26/07/2020 2:30:00 PM 26/07/2020 2:30:00 PM 27/07/2020 3:00:00 PM 27/07/2020 3:00:00 PM 426030B2ED480DED *kcpl.com Data: Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender [running] 8/07/2020 12:00:00 AM Carbon Black [running] 8/07/2020 12:00:00 AM Full list of decoded pDNS requests can be found here . 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A network security policy is a critical part of your IT cyber policy It helps determine what traffic is allowed on your network, keeping critical assets secure Network security policy examples & procedures What is a network security policy and how is it enforced? A network security policy delineates guidelines for computer network access, determines policy enforcement, and lays out the architecture of the organization’s network security environment and defines how the security policies are implemented throughout the network architecture. Network security policies describes an organization’s security controls. It aims to keep malicious users out while also mitigating risky users within your organization. The initial stage to generate a policy is to understand what information and services are available, and to whom, what the potential is for damage, and what protections are already in place. The security policy should define the policies that will be enforced – this is done by dictating a hierarchy of access permissions – granting users access to only what they need to do their work. These policies need to be implemented in your organization written security policies and also in your IT infrastructure – your firewall and network controls’ security policies. Schedule a Demo What is network security policy management? Network security policy management refers to how your security policy is designed and enforced. It refers to how firewalls and other devices are managed. Schedule a Demo Cyber Security Policies as Part of IT Security Policy A good IT security policy contains the following essentials: Purpose Audience Information security objective Authority and access control policy – This includes your physical security policy Data classification Data support and operations Security awareness and behavior Responsibility, rights, and duties A cyber security policy is part of your overall IT security. A cybersecurity policy defines acceptable cybersecurity procedures. Cybersecurity procedures explain the rules for how anyone with potential network access can access your corporate resources, whether they are in your physical offices, work remotely, or work in another company’s offices (for example, customers and suppliers), send data over networks. They also determine how organization’s manage security patches as part of their patch management policy. A good cybersecurity policy includes the systems that your business is using to protect your critical information and are already in place, including firewalls. It should align with your network segmentation and micro-segmentation initiatives. Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec helps you manage your network security policy? Network policy management tools and solutions, such as the AlgoSec Security Management Solution , are available. Organizations use them to automate tasks, improving accuracy and saving time. The AlgoSec Security Management Solution simplifies and automates network security policy management to make your enterprise more agile, more secure and more compliant – all the time. AlgoSec is unique because it manages the entire lifecycle to ensure ongoing, secure connectivity for your business applications. It automatically builds a network map of your entire hybrid network and can map and intelligently understand your network security policy across your hybrid and multi-vendor network estate. You can auto-discover application connectivity requirements, proactively analyze risk, rapidly plan and execute network security changes and securely decommission firewall rules – all with zero-touch and seamlessly orchestrated across your heterogeneous public or private cloud, and on-premise network environment. Schedule a Demo Select a size What is a network security policy and how is it enforced? What is network security policy management? Cyber Security Policies as Part of IT Security Policy How AlgoSec helps you manage your network security policy? Get the latest insights from the experts Application-aware network security! Securing the business applications on your network Keep Reading Avoiding the Security/Agility Tradeoff with Network Security Policy Automation Keep Reading Examining the Security Policy Management Maturity Model Keep Reading Choose a better way to manage your network

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